BEWARE: not all USB flash drives are FULLY compatible with Windows 7 / 8 unattended installation process!

[RicaNeaga]

After having some problems with an unattended .xml file, I found out something interesting that I'm sure is really good-to-know.

So, some speedy USB sticks have SSD controllers inside. Some of these flash drives (USB 2.0 and especially 3.0) are seen by windows and marketed as external SSDs, some not (ex: USB 3.0 drives that have SSD controllers). And for some reason (I don't know and I don't care why, another Microsoft snafu if you ask me) the Autounattend.xml file isn't working if you boot from one of these drives... maybe Autounattend file isn't the only thing that won't work.

Tryed so far two of these drives (one Ridata USB 2.0 / eSATA SSD, one Corsair USB 3.0), and for both the Autounattend.xml didn't work.

Fortunately there is a way to detect faulty (from Microsoft perspective) drives: Windows 7 USB/DVD download tool - Microsoft tool for making bootable USB drives. As you can see here, that Microsoft tool can't find the Ridata drive, even after removing any MBR and formatting it both NTFS and FAT32 with a low-format software.

After I found an old flash drive that was ok with Microsoft tool, the setup became ~ completely silent with an Autounattend.xml I have, even if I booted and installed windows from a flash drive / USB stick. There are no problems with unattended when booting from a DVD, fyi.

LE: Other tools for installing windows from an USB flash drive like RMPrepUSB, UltraISO PE, WinToFlash and W7T integrated USB Boot Prep tool, although are very successful at making those SSD-based drives to be bootable, ANY Autounattend.xml is useless from these kind of drives.

Edited December 1, 2011 by RicaNeaga

[ricktendo]

Try this it might work http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/145175-resolved-autounattendxml-ignored-flat-install/page__view__findpost__p__930902

[alfreire]

As I said in another post, a solution is to copy the file Autounattend.xml on a USB stick 2.0 valid, insert it into a USB 2.0 port, and install the system normally from the other pendrive (SSD or USB 3.0 type). It works for me when I install from a G2 32GB Kingston pendrive, and N-005 ADATA 32GB (both USB 3.0)

Regards... ;-)

Edited December 1, 2011 by alfreire

[alfreire]

Try this it might work http://www.msfn.org/...post__p__930902

Thank's... I will try insert Autounattend.xml in boot.wim image 2... I will tell you the result...

Regards... ;-)

Edited December 1, 2011 by alfreire

[ar_seven_am]

I think u need to change ur title, I dont have problem with unattend windows vista/7 with usb (both storage or stick), all u need is tweak the boot.wim image index 2(just like ricktendo do) to include ur autounattend.xml .

Edited December 2, 2011 by ar_seven_am

[reptile]

hi m8 i have sandisk cruzer and cruzer edge 16gb and unattended doesn,t work on these either.but here is the catch i made an autounattend on rt7lite ages ago copied to my usb drives and hey presto fully autounattend.i also cannot figure out why autounattend from w7t doesnt,work yet rt7lite does its all very hit and miss.but im sure its definately related to certain usb drives.i have also made w7tookit images to dvd and autounattend made by w7t didnt work from dvd either.so i tested my other theory and put autounattend from rt7lite and hey presto works again.it could be me but i have been testing this for several months.hope this helps anyone struggling to make it work.

[RicaNeaga]

PROBLEM SOLVED

Yep, I can confirm rick's method works. With the help of this guy also I managed to mount boot.wim via dism manually, and yes, copying the unattended.xml file to the mounted boot.wim (index 2) solves the problem.

Thanks again to all the smart members of wincert

[hornet512]

PROBLEM SOLVED

Thanks again to all the smart members of wincert

I coudn't understand the solution. I have lost myself between posts while looking for the solution :sad02:

Could you please explain it clearly? Unfortunately I am not one of the smart members of wincert

[ar_seven_am]

I coudn't understand the solution. I have lost myself between posts while looking for the solution :sad02:

Could you please explain it clearly? Unfortunately I am not one of the smart members of wincert

since we use clean install n boot directly from our windows media installation (dvd or usb), we used setup source from boot.wim image index 2 (Windows Setup PE), n seem if we used autounattend.xml only in the root of our media installation(USB), windows setup cant find it (look in the panther directory, u'll find the log of ur installation process.)

ricktendo methode is correct, manipulate n inject the autounattend.xml directly to the boot.wim image index 2 will make windows setup PE recognized our unattend value. (make any sense to u, we used the setup process from there, offcourse autounattend.xml should be placed there too ).

[RicaNeaga]

Waiting/hoping Legolash will make the operation described here the default way unattended is applyed through W7T, so any other explanation if that happens is futile.

[alfreire]

Thank's... I will try insert Autounattend.xml in boot.wim image 2... I will tell you the result...

Regards... ;-)

Work perfectly...

Thank you very much... ;-)

Edited December 4, 2011 by alfreire

[ricktendo]

In my experience, if you plug in your usb drive and Windows sees it as a normal HDD you need to add your xml to boot.wim, if it sees it as a removable drive (with black marking on the drive) the root dir of the drive is OK

[laddanator]

This works as well and you can put Unattended.xml on root of any USB HDD or USB Stick

Make a command file and call it mysetup.cmd and put this in it

@echo off
SET Path=sources
for %%I in (C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z) do if exist %%I:\%Path%\install.wim set DVDdrive=%%I:
If NOT "%DVDDrive%"=="" echo Found Install.wim at %DVDdrive%\%Path%\install.wim
IF "%DVDdrive%"=="" (
echo ERROR - COULD NOT FIND INSTALL.WIM in %Path% folder!
pause
pause
goto :EOF
)
if exist %DVDdrive%\unattend.xml SET UN=/unattend:%DVDdrive%\unattend.xml
if exist %DVDdrive%OEM\nul SET OEM=/m:%DVDdrive%\OEM

X:\setup.exe /installfrom:%DVDdrive%\install.wim  %OEM% %UN%
goto :Finish

:Finish
wpeutil reboot
pause

Mount boot.wim 2 and paste the mysetup.cmd in the Windows\system32 folder along with winpeshl.ini

Put this in your winpeshl.ini

[LaunchApps]
startnet.cmd
mysetup.cmd

I know either way you have to mount boot.wim 2 to copy .xml file but I change the unattended.xml allot and if you copy the two files above into the wim one time, never has to be changed again and I dont have to mount my boot.wim twice a month to change my unattended.xml file

Edited February 12, 2012 by laddanator

[RicaNeaga]

Fortunately this has been fixed in the latest build of W7T - just choose the FULL option when you decide to integrate the unattended.xml file through WIM Manager.

[laddanator]

Fortunately this has been fixed in the latest build of W7T - just choose the FULL option when you decide to integrate the unattended.xml file through WIM Manager.

Does this method inject unattend into the mounted wim? If so this method is not practical for me as I only update my Win7 every three months or 4 times a year but I seem to change my unattend every two weeks and with my method above I dont have to mount the wim eveytime I change my unattend becasue as long as my paths and files keep the same name, mysetup.cmd andwimpeshi.ini will always look for my install wim and my unattend

[RicaNeaga]

laddanator, sorry, I don't understand your problem

With the new Full method, W7T follows the two steps described by ricktendo here - copies the unattended.xml file both to boot.wim (index 2) and also to the root of the dvd file

Edited February 13, 2012 by RicaNeaga

[bphlpt]

RicaNeaga, if I understand laddanator correctly, he is saying that he only does a Win7 rebuild a few times a year, but he modifies his unattend file very often. Yes, as you say, W7T will make a new build that will operate correctly for him thanks to W7T now including the fix that ricktendo came up with and that you championed. But laddanator doesn't need to do a complete new build, which is required in order to inject the new unattend file into boot.wim index 2. He only wants to change the unattend file. Using the mysetup.cmd he outlined above, along with the addition to winpeshl.ini he described, the unattend file now ONLY has to be placed at the root of the DVD, which is easy to do using a UltraIso type app. He can change his unattend file as often as he likes without having to take the extra time to redo his build each time. It also saves having to duplicate the unattend file in two places. This seems like a reasonable enhancement of the current W7T method, as long as the correct behavior if using USB as an install medium is maintained. If you don't think so, why not?

In fact I would suggest that the script be further be modified to always look for the unattend file and if not found simply default to the current no unattend behavior silently with no error. You could even further modify it to also allow the possibility that the unattend file is not even located with the install files at all but is perhaps in a different external location specified by a text file. Then the install medium wouldn't have to be modified at all to use a different unattend file. Just edit the unattend file, wherever it is as long as the text file is pointing to it, and go. Just a thought.

Cheers and Regards